“I’m American. No more Turkish. No more Puerto Rican – I was Puerto Rican for 50 years, I had to learn Spanish,” said Alvarez, describing how he adopted a Puerto Rican identity when he moved to the US. Alvarez told the media outlet that he plans on getting his US passport as soon as possible so he can finally travel outside of the US. More foreign-born US residents are choosing to become naturalized US citizens. The Pew Hispanic Center reports that 59 percent of legal immigrants eligible for naturalization became citizens in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available, an 11 percent increase from a decade earlier.
